


Tastes Like Love

by cuddlesandcas



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesandcas/pseuds/cuddlesandcas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel tries his hand at baking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tastes Like Love

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wrote a ficlet to celebrate Dean's birthday. Cross-posted on [tumblr](http://applepiedean.tumblr.com/post/109061835245/tastes-like-love).

Baking is an art.

It’s also a science. One that Castiel has only just begun to grasp. It fascinates him how different food tastes when it’s made with love and care. It tastes better somehow, richer.

He’s not much of a chef himself – heating up prepackaged meals or cup noodles don’t count – having never had to cook a day in his life. Neither of his parents are particularly adept in the kitchen, in fact, the only person in his family who could claim to have any culinary talent was his brother, Gabriel. Making normal meals of course usually resulted in food that could be potentially classified as a bio-hazard. No, Gabriel’s talent lay in making desserts and they've been some of the best desserts he’s ever had.

As such, he should probably have asked for Gabriel’s aid in this endeavor. But no, this was something he wanted to be entirely of his own making. His only concession was to wheedle Gabriel’s pie recipe out of him.

_‘Fat load of good that’s done for me so far’_ he thinks disdainfully, eyeing his previous failures.

The general steps to make a pie had seemed deceptively simple, and yet, he’d failed miserably at his first two attempts at making a pie. On his first attempt, he’d misread the temperature settings and accidentally set it too high, which resulted in the pie getting burnt. The pitiful excuse of a pie was currently resting in a charcoal lump in the trash.

He’s not entirely sure how he ruined the second one, but the filling had congealed into an inedible thick paste while baking in the oven. It would serve a better life as glue or cement than as a dessert at this point.

Castiel leans back against the counter, rubbing at his temples to keep the slowly building headache at bay. He shoots a quick glance at the kitchen clock to make sure he has enough time for one more attempt before resolutely setting himself back to work.

He turns the oven back on to preheat and goes to prepare a new batch of dough for the pie crust. His hand slips as he measures out the flour, causing a cloud of it to rise up into the air. He sneezes twice and looks down in exasperation at the flour now dusting the counter top.

He can’t afford to be sidetracked, being as short for time as he is, so he decides to do a thorough cleanup once everything is done. He hurries on, quickly rolling out a new crust and setting it in the tin.

Once that’s done, he moves on to mix up the pie filling. He’d used up most of the blueberries in his earlier attempts, there’s just barely enough left for one more try. He pours the filling into the tin and carefully lays out the strips of crust over it, crimping the edges like he’s been told he’s supposed to do.

“Let’s hope the third time actually _is_ the charm.” He mutters to himself as puts the pie in the oven. All that’s left to do now is wait.

 

                                                                                                                        -x-

 

He’s both excited and nervous when the timer dings. If it’s ruined again he has no time to make another one. He holds his breath as he carefully takes out the pie tin, letting out a sigh of relief once he’s placed it on the cooling rack. The lattice crusting of the pie was a little uneven and it looks slightly overcooked; as far as appearances were concerned, it actually looked fine. The real mark of success would be the taste. 

Castiel frowns down at the pie, waiting impatiently for it to cool.

He all but jumps off of the chair when the egg timer rings, and starts rooting around in the drawers for a knife. He wraps a hand around the hilt of a knife just as he hears the sound of the front door opening and someone shuffling around in the entryway.

He sighs, setting the knife down and hurries quickly down the hall. “Hello, Dean.”

“Hey Cas, you’ll never guess what happened today-” Dean turns around and trails off, staring in surprise at Cas. He's just standing there, dark green apron covered in splatters of blue like a modern art painting of a Christmas tree, with a dusting of flour on his hair like a fine coating of fake snow to top it off.

“You've got a little…” Dean starts to say, moving up to Castiel to brush the flour out of his hair. Cas squints at him, reaching up to brush at his hair and looking down at his hand in mild surprise.

“Oh. Thank you, Dean.” He says, brushing the flour off onto his apron. Before he can enquire into Cas’ curiously messy state, his attention is grabbed by the smell of baked goods lingering in the air.

“Mmm, what’s that delicious smell?” Dean asks, following the scent to the kitchen. Castiel follows nervously after him.

The first thing he notices of course, is the pie sitting innocuously on the cooling rack. An excited grin lights up his face. "You bought pie?"

“I, uh” Cas stutters, suddenly nervous. He looks down, scratching at some pie filling that dried up on his wrist.

It's then that Dean notices the baking ingredients still out on the kitchen counter that Cas had forgotten to put away. "Wait. Cas, did you  _make_ me a pie?"

“Yes." Cas admits, fidgeting with his apron nervously. "I was able to acquire the recipe for Gabriel’s pie from him.”

Dean gives him an incredulous look. "How'd you manage that?"

“I promised him I would owe him a favor if he gave it to me.”

“Man, that’s a dangerous promise to make.” Dean says amused, quirking a brow at him.

“Yes, well.” Cas mumbles, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Would you like a slice?”

“Hell yeah. Do you even have to ask?” Dean says, moving to seat himself at the kitchen island. Cas cuts out an extra-large slice, moving to grab a fork from the dish rack as he sets the plate down in front of Dean.

Dean digs in immediately, humming in pleasure as he chews.

“This is good, Cas. You should’ve plated some up for yourself.  Here, you can have some of mine.” Dean says, offering up a forkful of pie. Castiel leans forward, allowing Dean to feed it to him.

He’s relieved to find that the pie actually does taste good, the blueberry filling is deliciously sweet and not too goopy and yes, the crust is somewhat overcooked but not enough to detract from the overall flavor. It’s not quite Gabriel’s pie but it’ll do.

“See? Good, right?” Dean says, as if it should already have been obvious to Cas. He rolls his eyes, smiling.

“It’s satisfactory.” He agrees, taking Dean’s fork to cut himself another piece.

“Hey! Get your own damn slice.” Dean says in mock outrage, grabbing the fork back from Cas.

“Since I’m the one who made the pie, I believe I’m entitled to it.” Cas replies, snatching the fork and quickly helping himself to another mouthful. He turns to look at Dean, grinning impishly.

Dean leans forward suddenly, grabbing Castiel’s face and angling it into a kiss, close-mouthed and soft. Castiel closes his eyes, savoring it. Dean sucks at the edge of his lower lip before pulling back, eyes half-lidded.

“You had a little pie filling-” he says, thumb moving up to rub at Cas’ lower lip “-right there.”

Castiel waits for his hand to fall away before pulling Dean back into another kiss, longer and more lingering than the last one. Eventually they have to pull back to breathe but they don’t move far away, just enough to look each other in the eyes. Castiel smiles.

“Happy birthday, Dean.”


End file.
